Week in Review: America Can’t Afford Paid Leave

The push for paid family leave is gaining steam across the country. Four states—California, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island—already mandate some form of paid family leave, and Colorado is likely to enact a new paid leave requirement this year.

The program is supposedly popular, but someone has to foot the bill. In a new article for The Daily Caller, Goldwater Institute executive vice president Christina Sandefur and former small business owner and legislative aide Frayda Levin examine the policy and what might happen when Americans understand just how much it will cost them.

Unions Shouldn’t Speak for Workers Who Want to Speak for Themselves

In last year’s Janus v. AFSCME decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment forbids governments from requiring their employees to pay fees to a union. As a result, some five million government employees across 22 states who previously had to give part of every paycheck to a union are now free to choose which organizations they will and won’t support with their money.

But the Janus decision only ended those forced fees. It didn’t stop public-sector unions from “representing” workers who aren’t union members and don’t want a union to speak for them. Goldwater Institute senior attorney Jacob Huebert writes about a new case that would take the next step in defense of workers’ individual liberties. Read his article on the In Defense of Liberty blog.

Watch Live: Howard Root v. the FDA

Howard Root is an entrepreneur whose company developed more than 100 new medical devices that saved and improved lives. Amid his great success, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and an illogical law nearly killed Root’s company and destroyed his life’s work, all while keeping patients from getting information to make decisions about their health care.

On Thursday, February 28, 2019, from 6-8 PM (MST) / 8-10 PM (EST), join the Goldwater Institute for a special event hosted by Goldwater national investigative journalist Mark Flatten, where we will talk with Howard Root about his fight against the FDA and what it means for every American. Watch live online at Facebook.com/GoldwaterInstitute. If you’re interested in attending in person, click here.